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BRITAIN ISRAEL COMMUNICATIONS& RESEARCH CENTRE
THE APARTHEID SMEARIsrael is not an apartheid state
The allegation damages the peace process
Professor Alan Johnson
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As a movement we recognise the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism just as we
recognise the legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalism. We insist on the right
of the state of Israel to exist within secure borders, but with equal vigour support
the Palestinian right to national self-determination. We are gratified to see that new
possibilities of resolving the issue through negotiation have arisen since the election
of a new government in Israel. We would wish to encourage that process, and if we
have the opportunity, to assist.1
Nelson Mandela,1993
The whole world must see that Israel must exist and has the right to exist, and is one
of the great outposts of democracy in the world Peace for Israel means security and
that security must be a reality.2
Martin Luther King Jr,1967
The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes,
rather than promotes, peace and harmony.3
Judge Richard J. Goldstone(former Justice of the South African Constitutional Court, who
led the United Nations 2008-9 fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict), 2011
If Israel were an apartheid state, I, for example, would not be allowed to work for
a Jewish newspaper or live in a Jewish neighbourhood or own a home. The real
apartheid is in Lebanon, where there is a law that bans Palestinians from working
in over 50 professions. Can you imagine if the Knesset passed a law banning Arabs
from working even in one profession? The law of Israel does not distinguish between
a Jew and an Arab.
Khaled Abu Toameh(journalist, Arab citizen of Israel), 2010
1 Nelson Mandela, Address by ANC President, Nelson Mandela, at the opening of the 37th Congress of theSouth African Jewish Board of Deputies. 21 August 1993. http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=4096
2 Martin Luther King Jr., Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world. Israel SDM YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvr2Cxuh2Wk3 Richard J. Goldstone, Israel and the Apartheid Slander. New York Times, 21 October 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/israel-and-the-apartheid-slander.html?_r=2&
Nelson Mandela.Archives de laVille de Montral/Flickr
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INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 7
What was Apartheid in South Africa?
What is the Apartheid Smear against Israel?
Its a smear so why not ignore it?
PART 1: WHY ISRAEL IS NOT AN APARTHEID STATE .............. 10
Israel is not an apartheid state for the Arab citizens
of Israel
Israel is pursuing equality for its Arab citizens
What about the anti-Arab racism in Israeli society?
PART 2: WHY ZIONISM IS NOT RACISM .................................... 24
What is Zionism?
What happened in 1948?
Didnt the Zionist leaders have a plan Plan D
to expel the Palestinians?
PART 3: WHY BEING A JEWISH STATE DOES NOT MAKE
ISRAEL AN APARTHEID STATE ................................................. 29
Israel calls itself a Jewish state. Doesnt that mean
it discriminates against non-Jews?
Israeli Jews wish to preserve a Jewish majority in
Israel. Isnt that a form of racism towards non-Jews?
The Law of Return grants a Jew from anywhere
in the world an automatic right to become an Israeli
citizen. This right is not enjoyed by non-Jews. Isnt
that apartheid?
Is the Absentee Property Law a case of Israeli
Apartheid?
Is it true that some Israeli towns have admissions
committees to stop non-Jews moving in?
The 2003 Citizenship and Entry Law blocks the
marriage partners of Israelis from living in Israel
if they are residents of the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
Isnt that apartheid?
Is Israels land only sold to Jews?
Is the Israeli government forcing Bedouin Arabs out
of their homes?
Does Israel discriminate against Christians?
PART 4: ISRAEL AND THE TERRITORIES ................................. 37
Why doesnt Israel grant citizenship to the
West Bank Palestinians?
Why doesnt Israel just get out of the West Bank?
Whats to negotiate?
But is Israel serious about negotiating the division
of the land into two states?
However the occupation came about, and however
hard it is for Israel to just get out, isnt Israels daily
practice in the Territories a case of apartheid?Frequently asked questions about Israel and
the Territories
PART 5: HOW THE APARTHEID SMEAR DAMAGES
THE PEACE PROCESS ................................................................ 50
The Apartheid Smear stops us understanding
the conflict
The Apartheid Smear causes political polarisation
The Apartheid Smear is opposed by those working
for peace and reconciliation
Ten ways the Apartheid Smear damages the
peace process
The Alternative: building the peace not promoting
the war
APPENDIX 1: THE HISTORY OF THE APARTHEID SMEAR ....... 57
The Stalinist Moment: Zionism treated as Capitalism
and Imperialism
The United Nations Moment: Zionism treated as racism
The Durban Moment: Zionism treated as apartheid
RESOURCES ...............................................................................60
Answering the Apartheid Smear
Videos
General reading
CONTENTS
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Apartheid is the term used to describe the racial
segregation and discrimination that was violently
enforced on black people by white minority governments
in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.
The Apartheid Smear is the claim that Israel is an
apartheid state like South Africa was in those years. It is
the intellectual foundation stone of BDS the effort by
anti-Israel pressure groups to boycott, divest from and
sanction Israel.
This pamphlet shows that this is factually wrong,
malicious, politically polarising and damages the peace
process.
WHY ISRAEL IS NOT AN APARTHEID STATE
Israel is not an apartheid state for the 20 per cent of its
citizens who are Arabs, as is sometime claimed. Although
they are critical of a range of discriminations and
inequalities, 77 per cent of the Arab citizens of Israel say
that they prefer living in Israel to any other country in
the world.
Israel is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy. The
Arab, Druze and other minorities in Israel are guaranteed
equal rights. All citizens vote in elections on an equal
basis. Discrimination based on race is against the law.
The universities are integrated. Some Israeli towns and
cities are mixed Arab-Jewish (e.g. Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Lod
and Ramle). The Israeli Courts are effective in countering
unfair discrimination. Israels Arab minority participates
fully in the political process.
Israels Arab citizens also hold some collective rights as a
national minority. Arabic is Israels second official
language, and there is a thriving Arabic mass media,
literature and theatre scene.
The Israeli government is working to reduce the gaps
between the minority and majority. Especially since the
Or Commission of 2000, Israel has been closing the
economic gaps, opening up the civil service, equalising
welfare, introducing Arabic into Jewish schools, and
improving access to higher education.
ZIONISM IS NOT RACISM
The Apartheid Smear says that Zionism is a form of
racism. It isnt. Zionism is the national liberation
movement of the Jewish people, calling for the restoration
of sovereign Jewish life in the land of Israel after 2000
years of exile and persecution. The persecution of Jews
was a constant of European life culminating in the
Holocaust.
Mainstream Zionists always believed that a non-Jewish
minority would live alongside the Jewish people. Israels
Declaration of Independence in 1948 promised the Arab
inhabitants of the State of Israel full and equal
citizenship and due representation in all its provisional
and permanent institutions.
The right of the Jewish people to create a national home
in Palestine was recognised by the British in the 1917
Balfour Declaration, and then approved by the League of
Nations (the forerunner of the United Nations) in 1922. In
1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations
approved the partition of Mandate Palestine into
Independent Arab and Jewish States.
In 1948 the Jewish community declared the establishment
of Israel in line with this UN resolution. Five Arab armies
immediately invaded. The Palestinian refugee problem
was born of war, not by design. Reaching a just and agreed
resolution of the refugee question is rightly central to the
peace process.
BEING A JEWISH STATE DOES NOT MAKE ISRAEL
AN APARTHEID STATE
Jewish state does not mean that Israel is a theocracy
(rule by clerics) or a state exclusively for Jews. Israel is ademocracy, governed by the rule of law as drafted by an
elected parliament, the Knesset. All faiths vote. All enjoy
freedom of worship. The Declaration of Independence
explicitly provides for the protection of minorities.
Yes, Israel is the national home of the Jewish people. But
many states around the world are both national
homelands for a majority ethnic or racial group and
democracies. Such states are still democracies because
of their systems of government and because the rights of
the minority are protected.
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ISRAEL AND THE TERRITORIES
Since 1967 Israel has occupied the West Bank after
winning the Six Day War against Arab armies that were
once again massed on its borders, intent on driving the
Jews into the sea.
The occupation persists 47 years later not because Israel
wants to rule over the Territories but because peace talks
in which Israel seeks recognition and security
guarantees in return for the creation of Palestinian state
in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have failed thus far.
Israels actions in the Territories that are mis-labelled
apartheid such as the so-called apartheid Wall are
actually security measures. Palestinian terrorism
against Israeli civilians reached unprecedented heights
during the Second Intifada (2000-2004).
Israel does not give Israeli citizenship to West Bank
Palestinians because they do not wishto become subject
to Israeli law. They want their own state, and Israel is
prepared to make an agreement on that basis.
Israels does not simply walk out of the West Bank
without any peace deal or security guarantees because
in recent experience, Israeli withdrawal from territory
(south Lebanon in 2000 and the Gaza Strip in 2005) has
led to Iranian-backed extremists taking over and using
the territory as a base to attack Israel. So Israel seeks a
negotiated solution.
Israel is serious about dividing the land through
negotiations. In 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, 2001, and 2008
Israel made or accepted proposals to divide the land. It
has peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Every Israeli
government since 2000 has endorsed the creation of a
fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state in a
two state solution. The Israeli people back the two state
solution by a solid two-thirds majority.
The pamphlet challenges some powerful myths about
the Territories. For example, settlements have not killed
the two state solution: a final peace settlement is
expected to see the restitution of almost all of the West
Bank to the Palestinians. The exceptions the land along
the Green Line that contains about 80 per cent of the
settlers will be compensated by land swaps, a principle
which has already been agreed with the Palestinian
negotiators, and is endorsed by President Obama and the
EU and, since April 2013, the Arab League.
THE APARTHEID SMEAR DAMAGES THE PEACE
PROCESS
The Apartheid Smear works against peace. It poisons
hopes for a peaceful resolution of this national conflict
by encouraging extremists, demoralising moderates, and
fostering a destructive boycott activism in the West.
The Apartheid Smear and the linked BDS campaign
consume energies that should be invested in a different
kind of activism; pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli: pro-
peace. Many organisations do just that, by bringing
Israelis and Palestinians together, including One Voice,
Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF), MEET, and The
Peres Centre for Peace. Getting involved with these
constructive pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-Peace
organisations is the real alternative to the dead-end and
destructive politics of BDS and the Apartheid Smear.
THE HISTORY OF THE APARTHEID SMEAR
The Apartheid Smear originated in the anti-Zionist
campaigns waged by the Communist states during the
Cold War. These campaigns frequently descended into
antisemitism, the word Zionist understood by all as a
fig-leaf for Jew.
The second key moment came in 1975 when the Soviet
Bloc, the authoritarian Arab states, and the so-called
Non-Aligned Movement used their built-in majority at
the UN General Assembly to pass Resolution 3379, which
equated Zionism with racism.
The third key moment came in 2001 after the failure of
the Camp David peace talks. A group of NGOs and anti-
Israel activists hijacked the UNs World Conference
against Racism, Racial Intolerance and Xenophobia inDurban, South Africa to launch a global campaign to
smear Israel as an apartheid state.
The pattern is clear: whatever the good intentions of
some supporters of the Apartheid Smear, in the minds of
its hard-core promoters there is a darker purpose: the
demonisation of Israel as a pariah state in order to
prepare the ground for its eventual destruction.
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Advocates of the boycott of Israel repeatedly invoke the boycott of
South Africa. The parallel they draw between Israel and apartheid
South Africa is false. The Palestinian, Druze and other minorities in
Israel are guaranteed equal rights under the Basic Laws. All citizens
of Israel vote in elections. There are no legal restrictions on movement,
employment or sexual or marital relations. The universities are
integrated. Opponents of Zionism have free speech and assembly and
may form political organisations. By radical contrast, South Africanapartheid denied non-whites the right to vote, decreed where they
could live and work, made sex and marriage across the racial divide
illegal, forbad opponents of the regime to express their views, banned
the liberation movements and maintained segregated universities.4
The historian Simon Schamaand the writer and lawyer Anthony Julius.
4 Anthony Julius and Simon Schama, John Bergeris wrong: The call for a cultural boycott of Israelis banal, gestural and morally compromised.The Guardian, 22 December 2006.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/dec/22/bergerboycott
The historian Simon Schama, 2009.Monica Campi/Flickr
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5 The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1965.http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx
THE APARTHEID SMEAR
INTRODUCTION
The apartheid accusation is factually wrong, politically
polarising and damages the peace process. It should be
dropped.
WHAT WAS APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Apartheid is the Dutch-Afrikaans term for separation,
used to describe the racial segregation and discrimination
enforced violently by white minority governments on non-
whites in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. During those
years a comprehensive system of racial classificationdivided the population into four categories white, black,
coloured (i.e. mixed-race) and Asian. The black majority
could not vote in general elections or marry white people.
They were segregated from white people and barred from
doing most skilled work. An official state-promoted racist
ideology of white supremacy justified all of this.
How has the international community defined apartheid?
Article 3 of the 1965 International Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
defines apartheid as governmental policies based on racial
superiority or hatred. All signatories to the Convention,
including Israel, condemn racial segregation and apartheid
and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices
of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.5
In 1976, the Communist bloc, Islamic bloc and the Non-
Aligned Movement combined to draft the International
Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the
Crime of Apartheid. As international law expert Anne
Herzberg notes, This instrument attempted to define
apartheid so broadly as to apply to all Western states as a
Cold War tactic by the Soviet Union no Westerngovernments have become a party to it. Articles 1 and 2 of
the International Convention on the Suppression and
Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid defined it as
inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing
and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons
over any other racial group of persons and systematically
oppressing them.
Article 7 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court defines the crime of apartheid as
inhumane acts committed in the context of an
institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and
domination by one racial group over any other racial group
or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining
that regime.
A segregated beach near Cape Town during apartheid in 1982.United Nation Photo/Flickr
Jews and Arabs swimming together inthe Dead Sea.Bluestar
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6 Ben Cohen, The Ideological Foundations of the Boycott Campaign Against Israel. American Jewish Committee, 2007.http://www.ajc.org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/IDEOLOGICAL_FOUNDATIONS.PD F
WHAT IS THE APARTHEID SMEAR
AGAINST ISRAEL?
It is the claim that Israel is an apartheid state just like
South Africa was from 1948 to 1994. This claim is the
intellectual foundation stone of BDS the effort by anti-
Israel pressure groups to boycott, divest from and sanction
Israel. These groups have an extremist political agenda: to
make Israel into a pariah state shunned by global civil
society, diplomatically fr iendless, and eventually vulnerable
to those in the region who have always opposed the very
existence of a homeland for the Jewish people. They want topass their campaign off as a reprise of the globally popular
boycott of apartheid South Africa, which helped bring white
minority rule to an end in that country. As Ben Cohen notes,
pregnant within the accusation that the State of Israel
practices apartheid is the recommendation for Israels
termination.6
The apartheid analogy cuts against [the peace] process
as its purpose is to suggest that Israel, like the [South
African] apartheid regime, should not exist. It feeds the
idea that negotiation with Israel is unnecessary as oneday it will cease to exist. The notion that one side of a
conflict ought not to exist or eventually will not inevitably
prolongs conflicts.
John Strawson, Reader in Law, University of London,
Co-Director, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict.
Those who are saying that Israel is an apartheid state
dont know what apartheid really is. I think that people
who make such statements minimise the pain of people
who suffered under apartheid, because if South Africans,
black people like myself were having the rights that the
Palestinians are having then there would not have been
an armed struggle in South Africa.
As a black person, moving from one residential place
made for black people, to another residential place made
for black people, I needed a permission going to a whitearea was even worse; youd have to give reasons why you
want to go there, so there was no freedom of movement.
In South Africa there were clinics that were just there for
white people and if I needed help or had to see a doctor, a
white doctor, that would be kind enough to look at my case
there would have to be a side room or a storeroom where
he could look at me. I could not go where the white people
were going. Some of these experiences the Palestinians
are not experiencing because they have the liberty to go to
any medical institution they want in the country.
We did not have the right to vote [given only in 1994] and
because of it we had no representation in Parliament, we
had no say about what was happening in Parliament. A
white person or white criminal accused of a crime could
never appear before a black judge because we didnt have
them. What was surprising to me was to hear yesterday
that the former President of Israel appeared before an
Arab judge. I mean, this would be unheard of in the
South African context, when you talk about apartheid. A
white person would never have a black person as a
teacher, as a lawyer, as a judge.Kenneth Meshoe, South Afr ican MP, 31 October 2011.
100,000 Israelis in Tel Aviv support the governments peace-makingpolicies, 1995.AP PHOTO/Nati Harnik
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7 Robbie Sabel, The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False Charge of Apartheid. Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, 2009.http://www.jcpa.org/text/apartheid.pdf
8 David Horovitz, Canadians taken aback at Arab MKs heckling of Harper. Times of Israel, 21 January 2014.http://www.timesofisrael.com/canadians-taken-aback-at-heckling-for-harper-by-arab-mks/#ixzz2r6jhepuV
Amos Oz, the Israeli novelist and a founder of Peace Now
puts it best. In his wonderful little book How to Cure a Fanatic,
he notes that the conflict between the Israelis and the
Palestinians is not a case of right versus wrong, but right
versus right. It is a complicated, long-running and hitherto
intractable conflict between two peoples, about their equally
legitimate national claims over a piece of land. The two parties
Israelis and Palestinians have worked with the
international community to negotiate a resolution to the
conflict. They have come close to a deal in recent times at
Camp David in 2000, Taba in 2001 and Annapolis in 2007-8.
In 2014 they are trying again, with US, European and Arab
League backing. The Apartheid Smear just gets in the wayof
both a proper understanding of the conflict and of peace-
making efforts.
The peace process needs trust, engagement, mutual
recognition and compromise. The Apartheid Smear
produces only polarisation, separation, mutual loathing and
maximalism.
Enough is enough.
ITS A SMEAR SO WHY NOT IGNORE IT?
Its tempting. As former Israeli Ambassador Robbie Sabel
has observed, calling Israel an apartheid state is a calumny
a deliberately malicious misrepresentation of the facts
about a particular matter in order to ruin the reputation of
whomever is its target. There is a dilemma when rebutting
anycalumny: To respond puts the responder in the invidious
position of having to prove his innocence and to engage in a
dialogue on the subject, a dialogue which by its very nature
may serve to spread the calumny.7
Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an
apartheid state. Think about that. Think about the
twisted logic and outright malice behind that: A state,
based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that
was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek
shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment
in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is
masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short
of sickening.8
Stephen Harper,Canadian Prime Minister, 2014
However, supporters of the two state solution have no choice
but to challenge the Apartheid Smear. By falsely associating
Israel with apartheid South Africa, the boycotters hope to
make Israel a pariah state. If they succeed, we will be
further from peace in the Middle East than ever, because a
negotiated agreement will only be possible when each side
recognises the national rights of the other, and finds a way
to reconcile those rights by sharing the same small piece of
land. They must both make excruciating compromises.
The promotion of the Apartheid Smear encourages the
Palestinians not to accept Jewish national rights and the
State of Israel. Without this acceptance, Israel will not be
prepared to consider the territorial compromises it must
make for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The Apartheid Smear also creates a poisonous climate for
negotiations, by demonising Israel. It marginalises moderate
voices on both sides and undermines the possibility of
reconciliation.
Amos Oz.Das blaue Sofa/Flickr
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9 Alan Dershowitz., The Case Against Israels Enemies. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008: p. 29.10 Reuven Weiss, Poll: 77% of Arabs sa y wont replace Israel. Ynet, 23 June 200 8. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3559045,00.html11 Alexander Yakobson, What does Israels Arab minorit y really think? Fathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region Is sue 3, 2013.
http://www.fathomjournal.org/policy-politics/what-does-israels-arab-minority-really-think/12 Israels Arab citizens: Key facts and current rea lities. UK Task Force, June 2012.13 Sikkuy, Whos in Favor of Equality? Equality between Arabs and J ews in Israel Summary of an Opinion Surve y. September 2011.
http://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdf14 Some Arab leaders do make the apar theid claim but in 2012 Tel Aviv University Professor Avi Degani found that 61.4 per cent of Israels Ar abs have a less than favourable opinion
of the way the Arab Kne sset members represent the interes ts of Arab citizens. Se e Gil Ronen, Arabs: Arab MKs Dont Represent Us Well. Israel National News, 23 July 2012.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158161#.UE9QMZFovGl
ISRAEL IS NOT AN APARTHEID STATE FOR THE
ARAB CITIZENS OF ISRAEL
Israel is not an apartheid state for the 20 per cent of its
citizens who are Arabs.
Israels Arab population is made up of communities who
were living in Israel prior to the formation of the state,
previously living under Ottoman and then British Mandatory
rule. Israeli Arabs currently constitute 20 per cent of the
population, numbering 1.7 million people, the religious
majority of which are Muslim (84 per cent), with large Druze(8.1 per cent) and Christian (7.8 per cent) populations.
Most Arab citizens live in the north of the country, in
majority Arab towns. Around 60 per cent of the Christian
Arab population is concentrated in Nazareth and Haifa,
while the Druze live largely in the Galilee and Carmel
regions. The Druze have traditionally rejected Palestinian
Arab nationalism, favouring strong affinities with their
country of residence, making them the most well-integrated
of the Arab minority in Israeli society, strongly identifying
as Israelis and well-represented in the political, military
and public sectors.
Israel is not an apartheid state Arab citizens can
vote no laws discriminate Israel has adopted
pro-Arab affirmative action measures in some sectors.9
Rhoda Kadalie and Julie Bertelmann, black South
African anti-apartheid activists.
Within the Muslim Arab group there are around 200,000
Bedouins, descended from formerly semi-nomadic tribes,
who have a range of cultural traditions that distinguish
them from other Muslim Arab groups. Most Bedouin live in
the Negev region of southern Israel, with a sizeable
population in the Galilee in northern Israel.
Although they are very critical of a range of discriminations
and inequalities, 77 per cent of the Arab citizens of Israel
say that they prefer living in Israel to any other country in
the world.10 According to a 2012 Israeli Democracy Index
survey,1144.5 per cent of the Arab citizens of Israel are proud
of being Israeli, and 62.3 per cent and 78 per cent of the Arab
citizens of Israel have confidence in the police and Supreme
Court respectively; a slightly higherlevel of confidence than
Israeli Jews.
The 2012 Index of Jewish-Arab relations, released by the
University of Haifa, found that 58 per cent of Israels Arab
citizens accept Israels definition as a nation with a Jewish
majority, with 60 per cent regarding Israel as their homeland
and 71 per cent describing it as a good place to live. Other
polls have found that a majority were willing to recogniseIsrael as a Jewish state as long as they were given full rights
and protected against discrimination, and strongly
supported greater economic, political and social integration.
Whilst many Arab citizens of Israel are sympathetic to
Palestinian self-determination and statehood and are often
critical of Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank, the
majority have integrated into Israeli society, do not support
violence against the state, and have no interest in conflict.12
According to a 2011 report conducted by Sikkuy, an Arab-Jewish NGO, 74 per cent of Jews acknowledge that Arab
citizens suffer some degree of discrimination and many of
them expressed empathy for their situation. 60 per cent of
Jews believe that promoting the equality of Arab citizens is
in the interest of the county, and 90 per cent of Arab citizens
of Israel see their future in the State of Israel.13
These are not figures one would expect in an apartheid
state.14
PART 1:WHY ISRAEL IS NOT AN APARTHEID STATE
An Ethiopian Jewish boy attends a welcoming ceremony at Ben Gurionairport near Tel Aviv, 29 October 2012.Ariel Schalit/AP/PressAssociation Images
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15 Amichai Magen, The Apartheid Analogy is False and Breeds Conflict. SPME, 12 February 2008 .http://spme.org/news-from-the-middle-east/53-distinguished-stanford-faculty-state-publicly-israel-is-not-an-apartheid-state/4536/
16 Ruth Margalit, Israels Surprising Pove rty. The New Yorker, 5 June 2013. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/06/israels-surprising-poverty.html17 Israels Arab citizens: Key facts and current rea lities. UK Task Force: on issues relating to Arab citizens of Israel, March 2013.
http://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/130304-israel-s-arab-citizens---key-facts-and-current-realities.pdf
2008 Statement by 53 Distinguished Stanford University
Faculty
THE APARTHEID ANALOGY IS FALSE AND BREEDS
CONFLICT.
In pursuing peace, security and prosperity for
Palestinians and Israelis we must focus on initiatives
that bring the sides closer together. We are saddened and
concerned by the malicious propaganda campaign being
waged on various campuses, including Stanford, against
Israel. In falsely seeking to smear Israel with the stain of
apartheid, this campaign is sowing divisiveness, bigotry,and discord.
Demonising Israel is contrary to our values of mutual
respect and academic integrity. It contributes to the
perpetuation of the conflict, not its resolution. Apartheid
was the vicious policy of the old South Africa that kept
races separate and caused untold suffering to the Black
majority and other people of colour. The anti-Israel
movement is cynically exploiting the memory of African
suffering in order to score points in the fraught field of
Middle East politics. To describe Israel, the only liberal
democracy in the Middle East, as apartheid, trivialisesthe South African past while doing a grave injustice to
the most pluralistic and open society in the Middle East
today. Under Apartheid, people were legally classified
into racial groups and forcibly separated from each other.
Apartheid South Africa was ruled by a White-only
government. A wide range of laws ensured racially based
discrimination, including the prohibition of Blacks from
voting, using Whites-only schools and hospitals, and
even mixing with Whites in public places.
The State of Israel has nothing in common with
apartheid. Israeli society, as many others, is not free of
racial and religious discrimination. Yet, in Israel, all
minorities including the 20 per cent of Israeli citizens
who are Arab Christians and Muslims have equal civil,
political, economic and personal rights. The Arab citizens
of Israel form political parties, compete in free and fair
elections, and are represented in all levels of the
legislature, executive and judiciary. Arabs are members
of, for example, the Israeli Parliament, cabinet, and High
Court. Israelis of all religions and ethnicities can legallylive in any public residential community, attend the
same universities and use the same hospitals. Arabic is
an official language, an Israeli Arab is the Minister of
Culture, and Arab Israelis richly contribute to Israels
science, culture and sports. To equate Israel with
apartheid displays a profound ignorance of the horror
that was South Afr ica as well as contempt for democracy
in Israel. The difficult path to peace in the Middle East
can do without this sort of empty vilification. Rather, we
need to work together toward the vital quest for true co-
existence, peace and justice for all in the Middle East
Christians, Jews and Muslims.15
Signed by 53 Stanford Professors and Senior Fellows.
Yes, there are inequalities in Israeli society and Israels Arab
citizens suffer from a number of disadvantages. Whilst 20
per cent of the Israeli population is defined as living in
poverty, the Arab figure is 50 per cent (though 60 per cent of
the Haredim or ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel live in
poverty).16 They are underrepresented in key areas of
employment; for instance, only 460 of Israels 150,000 high-tech workers were Arab in 2013. Arab death rates from
preventable diseases are 1.5 per cent higher than that of
Israels general population.17 Disadvantage also exists in
education; only 10.6 per cent of Israeli university students
were Arab. Knesset Committees and the Israeli High Court
have identified uneven allocation of resources to Arab
schools and higher dropout rates amongst Arab pupils. The
2007 US State Department Country Report on Human Rights
criticised Israel for the unequal spending on education for
Meir Eindor, Director of the Almagor Terror Victims Association (L),and MK Taleb Abu Arar debate at Internal Affairs and Environment
Committee, the Knesset, 28 October 2013.Flash 90
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18 U.S. State Department, Country Repor ts on Human Rights Practices. 11 March 2008.19 Arab turnout for municipal elections higher than in Jewish areas. UK Task Force: on
issues relating to Arab citizens of Israel, 23 October 2013. http://www.uktaskforce.org/latest-news/arab-turnout-for-municipal-elections-higher-than-in-jewish-areas.php
20 Ariel Solomon, Israeli Arabs defy exp ectations with higher turnout, Jerusalem Post,24 January 2013. http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-Arabs-defy-expectations-with-higher-turnout
21 Current Knesset Members of the Nineteenth Kness et.http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mkindex_current_eng.asp?view=0
22 Ali Haider, Arabs, the Israeli civil service nee ds you. Haaretz, 16 August 2012.http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/arabs-the-israeli-civil-service-needs-you-1.458640
23 Ofra Edelman, K atsav sentenced to 7 years. Haaretz, March 23 2 011.http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/katsav-sentenced-to-7-years-1.351210
24 Solving The Security Puzzle In The Mediterranean And The Broader Middle East.The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy: List of Biogr aphical Notes,p. 21-22.
25 Druze Professor to become Israels ambassador to New Zealand. Times of Israel,24 April 2012. http://www.timesofisrael.com/druze-professor-to-become-israels-top-diplomat-in-new-zealand/
There are 12 Arab MKs (MPs) in the current Knesset and
they are among the governments harshest critics.21Arabs
have served in the Cabinet (e.g. Raleb Majadele), in the civil
service (7.8 per cent of civil servants in Israel are Arab22), and
on the Supreme Court (Justice Salim Joubran). It was an
Israeli Arab judge, George Karra, who sentenced former
President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, to jail for seven years on a
rape conviction.23
Ali Yahya, the first Israeli Muslim ambassador was
appointed in 1995,24 and Walid Mansour, the first Druze
Ambassador in 1999.25Arabs have freedom of movement,assembly and speech. They serve as the heads of hospital
departments,26university professors,27as senior police28and
army officers29. Eleanor Joseph became the first female Arab
paratrooper in 2010.30Some of the major Israeli towns and
cities are considered mixed Arab-Jewish cities (e.g. Acre,
Haifa, Jaffa, Lod and Ramle) with large Arab and Jewish
populations.31 Israeli hospitals show no discrimination to
the patients they treat nor do they discriminate in
employment. Dr. Aziz Darawshe, for example, was recently
appointed Director of Emergency medicine at Hadassah
hospital in Jerusalem.32
Jewish children and Arab children, citing a 2005 study at the
Hebrew University.18
However, to use the term apartheid to describe these
socio-economic gaps between a national majority and a
national minority is wrong for two reasons.
The first reason is that the position of the Arab minority in
Israel is totally different to the position of the black
majority in apartheid South Africa.
Israel is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy. The legal
scholar and human rights expert John Strawson points out
that Israel lacks the features of an apartheid state. The
Palestinian, Druze and other minorities in Israel are
guaranteed equal rights under the Basic Laws. All citizens
of Israel vote in elections on an equal basis. There are no
legal restrictions on movement, employment or sexual or
marital relations. The universities are integrated. Opponents
of Zionism have free speech and assembly and may form
political organisations.
Israels Arab minority participates fully in the political
process and in civil society. Turnout for Israels municipal
elections on 22 October 2013 exceeded 70 per cent in most
Arab areas, compared to under 50 per cent in Jewish ones.19
The case of general election turnout is more complex. Arab
participation in elections has dropped significantly in recent
years, from 77.6 per cent in 1996 to 56 per cent in 2013. The
voter turnout in Israel as a whole was 67.8 per cent in 2013.20
Israeli elections.Muhammed Muheisen/AP/Press Association Images
Arab-Israeli judge in the Israeli Supreme Court, Salim Joubran, May2013.Isaac Harari/FLASH90
12The Apartheid Smear
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26 Eg. Dr. Rifat Safedi, an Israeli Arab docto r, who heads the Liver Unit at HadassahUniversity Hospital.
27 The University of Haifa has appointed sociology Professo r Majid al-Haj Dean ofResearch, making him the first Arab dean at an Israeli university.http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557 ;Professor Ashraf Brik member of Ben-Gurion University andwinner of the 2011 young chemist award.
28 Jamal Hakrush was has been assista nt commander of the National Policesince December 2006; http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/15/c_13931962.htm
29 Bedouin officer, Lieutenant Colonel Abd el-Majid Hidr (also known as Amos Yarkoni)received the Order of Distinction (Eyal Lewin, Pa triotism: Insights from Israel).
30 Israel Politik, 23 July 2010. http://www.israelpolitik.org/2010/07/23/faces-of-the-idf-israels-first-female-arab-israeli-fighter/
31 On mixed cities see The New Israel Fund-Shatil Mixed Cities Project.http://www.iataskforce.org/sites/default/files/mixedcities6.pdf and The UK TaskForce, Briefing: Arab populations in mixed cities, 2012. http://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdf
32 Judy Seigel-Itzkovich, Hadassah: New emergency me dicine director. Jerusalem Post,17 February 2013.
33 The Central Bureau of Statistics, 2010.http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st03_24&CYear=2010
34 Amnon Rubinstein, More Equality than in Europe. 2012. http://amnonrubinstein.com/More-equality-than-in-Europe.html
The infant mortality rate in Israel in 2011 was 3.5 deaths to
1000 live births 2.8 for Jews and 3.7 for Arabs (lower than
the figure for native British citizens). For comparison, the
South African infant mortality rate is 34.6 deaths per 1000
live births. The infant mortality rate for the Arab minority
in Israel ranks equal or better than the rate for the majority
in Europe and the United States.
Comparing the infant mortality rates of Israels Arab
minority with the minorities living in European countries
also shows the unfairness of the apartheid allegation.Amnon Rubinstein, the former MK for the left wing Meretz
party, published revealing statistics showing that In rich
and developed France, the infant mortality rates among
Arabs (most of whom speak the language of the country,
and some of whom are already second, third and fourth
generation natives of France) are not only much higher than
in Israel [but in addition] the gapbetween the minority and
the majority [in France] is considerably larger than in racist
Israel.34
Infant Mortality
Source: The Central Bureau of Statistics 2011
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ChinaUSABritainIsraeli ArabsIsraeli Jews
Life Expectancy by Population Group
and Sex
Source: The Central Bureau of Statistics33
Life Expectancy Comparison
Source: Central Intelligence Agency
0
20
40
60
80
100
Women Men
EgyptSouth AfricaUnited KingdomIsrael
7982
7882
5048
70
75
0
20
40
60
80
100
2005 - 20092000 - 20041996 -1999
Arab %Jews and others %Arab %Jews and others %
8081.9 83.1
Females Males
77.2 78.379.3
76.6 77.979.4
74.6 74.8 75.5
The Apartheid Smear 13
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/15/c_13931962.htmhttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/15/c_13931962.htmhttp://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdfhttp://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdfhttp://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdfhttp://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st03_24&CYear=2010http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st03_24&CYear=2010http://amnonrubinstein.com/More-equality-than-in-Europe.htmlhttp://amnonrubinstein.com/More-equality-than-in-Europe.htmlhttp://amnonrubinstein.com/More-equality-than-in-Europe.htmlhttp://amnonrubinstein.com/More-equality-than-in-Europe.htmlhttp://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st03_24&CYear=2010http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st03_24&CYear=2010http://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdfhttp://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/uktf-briefing---arab-populations-in-mixed-cities--2-january-2012.pdfhttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/15/c_13931962.htmhttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/15/c_13931962.htmhttp://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sociology-professor-becomes-first-arab-dean-of-israeli-university-1.171557 -
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35 Benjamin Pogrund, Apartheid? Israel is a democrac y in which Arabs vote. Focus, December 2005.
Mortality rate per 1000 people
according to selected age groups
and population groups
Source: The Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract
of Israel, 2007
Males
Females
0
20
40
60
80
100
JewArab
80 - 84yrs60 - 64yrs40 - 44yrs20 - 24yrs10 - 14yrs1 - 4yrs
87.2
78.1
15.9
10.61.9 1.81.2 10.3 0.10.7 0.2
0
20
40
60
80
100
JewArab
80 - 84yrs60 - 64yrs40 - 44yrs20 - 24yrs10 - 14yrs1 - 4yrs
86.7
63.3
9.961 0.90.3 0.30.1 0.10.5 0.2
Value of owner-occupied apartments in Jewish
and Arab communities 2000 2005
Source: The Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract
of Israel, 2007
[In Israel] Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same
delivery room, with the same facilities, attended by the
same doctors and nurses, with the mothers recovering in
adjoining beds in a ward.
Benjamin Pogrund, South-African born anti-apartheid
campaigner and journalist.35
None of this has been achieved by accident. Israels 1948
Declaration of Independence committed the country to
complete equality of social and political rights to all its
inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex and pledged
to guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language,
education and culture. The Declaration also committed
Israel to safeguard the Holy Places of all religions and to be
faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United
Nations.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
JewishArab
2000 2005200420032002
(thousands
ofshekels)
2001
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36 Khaled Abu Toameh For Israels Arabs It Is Not Apartheid. Gatestone Institute, 2010. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1102/for-israels-arabs-it-is-not-apartheid37 HCJ 114/78 Muhammad Said Burkan vs The Minister of Finance et al. Judgment. 2 6 February 1978. http://www.hamoked.org/files/2010/112340_eng.pdf38 US State Department: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel and the occupied territories, 2005. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61690.htm39 Ismail Khaldi, An Israeli diplomat responds to Israel A partheid Week at UC Ber kley. San Francisco Chronicle, 4 March 2009.
http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/apartheid-week/40 Ariel Ben Solomon, Study shines spotlight on status of Arabic in Israel . Jerusalem Post, 25 April 2013.
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Study-shines-spotlight-on-status-of-Arabic-in-Israel-31101141 Multilingual Israel news TV to launch. Ynet, 23 July 2013. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4395568,00.html42 Emile Habibi won the 1992 Israel Prize for liter ature; he has a square dedicated to him in Haifa.43 Eg. The Jaffa Theatre Comp any has collaboration between Arab and Jewish practitioners.
An Arab member of the Knesset who goes all the way to
the US and Canada to tell university students and
professors that Israel is an apartheid state is not only a
hypocrite and a liar, but is also causing huge damage to
the interests of his own Arab voters and constituents. If
Israel were an apartheid state, what is this Arab doing in
the Knesset? Doesnt apartheid mean that someone like
this Knesset member would not, in the first place, even
be permitted to run in an election? Fortunately, Arab
citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants andshopping malls as Jews in this apartheid state. Moreover,
they can run in any election and even have a minister in
the government [Raleb Majadlah] for the first time. In
this apartheid state, the Arab community has a free
media that many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip envy. Ironically, an Arab newspaper in Nazareth or
Haifa that is licensed by Israel enjoys more freedom than
the media controlled by Hamas and Fatah, as well as
most corrupt Arab dictatorships.
Khaled Abu Toameh, Israeli Arab journalist.36
In 1978, Israels Supreme Court reaffirmed that the rule
prohibiting discrimination between persons on grounds of race,
sex, national group, community, country of origin, religion,
beliefs or social standing is a fundamental constitutional
principle, which is integrated and woven into our fundamental
legal concepts and constitutes an integral part thereof.37
The effectiveness of the Israeli Courts in countering
incidents of unfair discrimination when they do arise was
demonstrated in August 2005 when the Israeli Arab human
rights group Adalah filed a petition with the Tel Aviv DistrictCourt against the Municipality of Lod and the Ministry of
Education (MoE), following its refusal to register an eight-
year-old Arab child in a Jewish elementary school in Lod.
The municipality and MoE argued it was better for the child
to attend an Arab school. In response to a 4 September 2005
court order, the municipality registered the boy in the
Jewish school.38 Nothing like this, of course, could have
occurred in apartheid South Africa, where the law of the
land did not merely permit racial discrimination but
expressively mandated it.
Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deal honestly.
By any yardstick you choose educational opportunity,
economic development, women and gay rights, freedom
of speech and assembly, legislative representation
Israels minorities fare far better than any other country
in the Middle East.
Ismail Khaldi, an Arab citizen of Israel and the nations
first high-ranking Muslim in the Israeli Foreign Service.39
Israels Arab citizens do not simply enjoy individual rights
under the law. They also hold some collective rights as a
national minority. Arabic is Israels second official language,
though there is much to do before all government agencies
are fully bi-lingual.40The Abraham Fund is working with the
government to ensure information leaflets about accessing
welfare services are available in Arabic. There is a thriving
Arabic mass media (a multilingual partially Arabic languagenews channel has just been established)41 as well as a
vibrant Arabic literature42and theatre scene.43
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Rate of participation by men in the work force
in Israel and the USA (in 2012)
Sources: The Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Annual
of Israel, 2007 and the United States Department of Labor
ISRAEL IS PURSUING EQUALITY
FOR ITS ARAB CITIZENS
The second reason it is a smear to compare the position of
the Arab minority in Israel to the position of the black
majority in apartheid South Africa is because the Israeli
governmentis working hard to reduce the gaps between the
minority and majority.
The Israeli government has recognised the problem of social
inequality and is pursuing a set of policies designed to
produce greater equality and inclusion for its Arab citizens.
On the whole, the situation of the Arab minority inside
Israel proper is much like that of many national
minorities in Europe and elsewhere. They enjoy equality
under the law, vote for parliament, are represented by
very lively parties of their own, but in practice suffer
discrimination in many areas. To call this apartheid
would be grossly misleading.
Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist famous for crossing the
lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yasser Arafat on
3 July 1982, the first t ime the Palestinian leader ever met
with an Israeli.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Elementary SchoolSecondary School
BritainIsraeli-JewsIsraeli-Arabs
30.4
29
27.8
24.4
21.3
26.2
Average number of students per classroom in
elementary and secondary schools in the Jewish,
Arab and British education systems
Sources: The Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical
Abstract of Israel, 2007 and the Department of Education
Class Size and Education in England Evidence report
Personal status issues, including marr iage, are dealt with
by independent Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian
denominational courts. Arab students and Arab professors
study, research, teach and above all argue and debate
on all of Israels university campuses. At Haifa University
selected for a boycott by Britains Lecturers Union some
20 per cent of the student body is Arab.
0
20
40
60
80
100
USAJewsArab
65+55-6445-5435-4425-3418-2415-17
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44 Robert Philpot, Israels minorities: a progressive example. in Making the Progressive Case for Israel. 2013.http://www.lfi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/making-the-progressive-case-for-israel-an-lfi-book.pdf
45 Ron Gerlitz and Baty a Kallus, A Dangerous Position. +972, 19 October 2012. http://972mag.com/a-dangerous-position/
Closing the economic gaps
In 2007, the Israeli government voted to establish the
Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze
and Circassian Sectors, led by Aiman Saif, to maximise the
economic potential of these populations.
The Authority is now in charge of over NIS two billion
(345.2 million) investment to increase housing to the Arab
citizens, empower Arab municipalities, advance the
business sector, enhance employment, and advance human
resource development. To give a few examples; GovernmentDecision No. 1539 in March 2010 allocated NIS 778 million
(134.3 million) for a five year plan on Economic Development
of 13 Arab towns; Decision No. 2861 in February 2011
allocated NIS 681 million (117.5 million) for the development
of the Druze sector; and Decision No. 3211 in May 2011
allocated NIS 350 million (60.1 million) for the development
of Bedouin communities in the north of the country.
Following the social justice protests of 2011, the government
allocated a further NIS 750 million (129.5 million) to enhance
employment, with most of this budget going to the removal
of barriers preventing the Arab population from integrating
into the workforce, especially Arab women. The rest aims to
enhance accessibility to employment centres by subsidising
transportation and working with potential employers.
Aiman Saif, general director of the Economic Development
Authority for the Arab Sector describes the Or Commission
report as a roadmap, both for dealing with Arab issues and
for improving relations between Arabs and Jews. From the
The Or Commission: a turning point
In 2000 the Israeli Cabinet set up a Commission headed by
Justice Theodore Or to investigate the riots of 2000 when 12
Arab citizens of Israel, one Jewish citizen of Israel and one
resident of the Gaza Strip were killed.
The Or Commission report recognised the alienation and
discrimination experienced by Israels Arab minority. After 92
hearings, 377 witnesses and 4,289 exhibits, the report
concluded that ending the structural inequality experienced
by Israels Arab citizens was the most sensitive and importantdomestic issue facing Israel today and recommended that the
state must initiate, develop, and operate programs
emphasising budgets that will close gaps in education, housing,
industrial development, employment, and services.
While the Or Commissions findings served as a reminder
for many Israelis about the difficulties faced by their
fellow Arab citizens, it is difficult to imagine the
government of Saudi Arabia publishing a report critical
of its treatment of women, Shiites or non-Muslims.44
Robert Philpot, Director of Progress, the British left-of-centre think tank.
The truth is the Or Commission was a real turning point.
Writing in 2012 at the radical +972 website Ron Gerlitz, the
co-executive director of Sikkuy (an Arab-Jewish organisation
working to advance equality), and Batya Kallus argued that
as a result of a government drive from above and pressure
from below by Arab civil society, over the last ten years, the
government has begun to initiate significant and innovative
processes to close the gaps of inequality, advance economic
development, and promote employment for the Arab
population.45There has been progress in closing economic
gaps, opening up the civil service, equalising welfare,
introducing Arabic into Jewish schools, and improving
access to higher education.Aiman Saif, General Director of the Authority for the EconomicDevelopment of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors. PresidentialConference/YouTube screen shot
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46 Israels Arab Citizens: Progres sive Responses. UK Task Force, 2012.http://www.uktaskforce.org/docs/121210-progressive-responses.pdf47 Meirav Arlosoroff, Set tling the Bedouin question. Haaretz, 27 December 2012. http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/settling-the-bedouin-question.premium-1.49028548 Inbal Orpaz, Arabs taking their place in Start-up Nation: Nazareth is emerging as a new Silicon Wadi. Haaretz, 24 January 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.570280Inbal
Orpaz, Nazareth, Israels largest Arab city, now has a budding start-up scene., Haaretz, 23 January 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.570272#.UuZ3bNRgE2Q.email49 Ron Gerlitz and Batya Kallus, A Dangerous Position, +972, 19 October 2012. http://972mag.com/a-dangerous-position/50 Adam Hug, Full and Equal Citizens? How to deliver equality for Israel s Arab community. London, 2010: p. 31.51 Ariel Ben Solomon, National ser vice in Arab sector up 76% over past year. The Je rusalem Post, 20 June 2013.
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/National-service-in-Arab-sector-up-76-percent-over-past-year-317143
A changing civil service
The government have set quotas to increase the
representation of Arabs in the Civil Service. In 2007 the
government set a target for 10 per cent of employees to be
from the non-Jewish communities by 2012.50 In 2008 the
Ministry of Justice announced that 30 per cent of all civil
service vacancies in future would be set aside for Arabs, and
it also introduced incentive packages so Arabs could relocate
to Jerusalem.
In 2011 the National Civic Service Scheme was reformed tomake it easier for Arabs to take part in community service
as an alternative to IDF enlistment. There has been a 76 per
cent rise in the number of the Arab citizens of Israel
undertaking civilian national service, with the 2012 number
standing at 3,000.51
In 2003, the representation of Arabs in government
service was five per cent. Since then, there has been a
steady increase, and by 2011 it had reached 7.8 per cent.
The number of Arabs employed in government civil
service rose in the same time period from 2,800 workersin 2003 to 5,000 in 2011 an impressive increase of 78 per
cent, especially in comparison to a 12 per cent increase
in the number of Jewish workers during the same per iod.
This represents a dramatic increase that is the result of
focused policies to advance fair representation of Arabs
in government service. (Contrary to the popular claim
that the increase in Arab government employees is only
the result of an increase in Druze employees.)
Ron Gerlitz, the co-executive director of Sikkuy, an Arab-
Jewish organisation working to advance equality and
Batya Kallus, writing for the radical website +972.
heart of the Prime Ministers Office, Saif has guided the
effort to implement the reports recommendations using
government money, not least by building 13 industrial parks
in Arab communities. Saif says that the money allocated is
not enough, but this is not a picture of an apartheid state.46
Ron Gerlitz applauds the government for running a number
of programs to encourage Arab employment, including a
process leading to the establishment of 22 employment
guidance centres in Arab communities.
The government will spend close to NIS 8 billion (1.38bn)
over the next five years on the economic, social and
educational development of the 200,000 strong Bedouin
community of the Negev, with the aim of raising the
community out of poverty.47
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has introduced a
programme to boost listings of Arab companies. Ester
Levanon, Chief Executive of the TASE believes the exchange
has a national responsibility to foster wealth creation within
the countrys Arab communities. She said: Listing Israeli-
Arab companies is not only good for the TASE and the
companies in question, its good for Israel too. If the economy
is strong, and these companies can grow, then that
contributes positively for everyone.
Nazareth has emerged as the Israeli-Arab Silicon Valley
with high-tech jobs in the city r ising from 30 in 2008 to over
400 in 2013. Nearly one-third are filled by women. One
company, Amdocs, which provides bill ing and other services
to telecommunication companies around the world has
opened a centre in Nazareth that employs some 150 people
and staff, one-third Jewish, one-third Muslim, and one-thirdDruze, Circassians and Arab Christians.48
The government of Israel is closing the gaps between its
Jewish and Arab citizens in many fields. The refusal to
recognise those changes is dangerous and counter-
productive.49
18The Apartheid Smear
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52 Ron Gerlitz and Batya Kallus, A dangerous position. +972, 19 October 2012. http://972mag.com/a-dangerous-position/58002/53 Danielle Ziri, Welfare Ministry app oints consultant for Arab sector. Jerusalem Post, 4 August 2013.54 Authority for the Economic Development of the A rab, Druze and Circassian Sectors. Inter-Agency Task Force Educational Fact Sheet.
http://www.iataskforce.org/sites/default/files/Authority%20for%20the%20Economic%20Developement%20-%20July%202013.pdf55 Nancy K Kauffman, Community Organising in the Negev, National Co alition of Jewish Women. 13 October 2013.56 Alexander Yakobson, What does Israels Arab Minority really think, Fathom: for a deeper underst anding of Israel and the Region, Issue 3.57 Abraham Fund Initiatives, Ya Salam Ara bic Teaching Curriculum. http://www.abrahamfund.org/141058 Samara Greenberg, Ya Salam: Breaking the Language Barrier. The Jew ish Policy Center, 24 August 2010.
http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/blog/2010/08/ya-salam-breaking-the-language-barrier
A 2012 survey found that 62.3 per cent of Arab respondents
have confidence in the police (25.1 per cent a lot of
confidence and 37.2 per cent some confidence) a
significant increase from the previous survey and slightly
more, remarkably, than the percentage of Jews who expressed
confidence.56
More Arabic in Jewish schools
In 2010 the government introduced Ya Salam, an Arabic
language requirement for fifth graders in 170 Jewish schools
in northern Israel. Today, the Ya Salam program is used in100 schools throughout Israel in fifth and sixth grade. Most
teachers in the program are Arab trained in language
instruction by The Abraham Fund Initiatives in cooperation
with the Ministry of Education and are integrated into
Jewish school staff. Each year throughout the country,
training workshops are held for Arabic teachers for both
elementary and high school in order to create pedagogical
continuity between the elementary and high school
curricula. These workshops are organised by a partnership
of The Abraham Fund Initiatives, The Ministry of Education,
and local authorities.57The scheme will be rolled out, an
opportunity for Jewish primary school children to learn the
Arabic language and culture from Arab teachers.58
Equalising welfare
Gerlitz and Kallus say the Ministry of Welfare is
systematically closing the gaps in the allocations of welfare
budgets between Jewish and Arab communities, and is
operating a variety of programs giving clear budgetary
priority to funding of Arab municipalities.52 In 2013 the
Ministry of Welfare also appointed a consultant to tackle
welfare disparity between Jewish and Arab municipalities.53
Gerlitz and Kallus also point out that the Ministry of Housing
and Construction is successfully marketing the development
of new housing on state-owned land in Arab communitiesincluding Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm54while the Ministry
of Transportation initiated a process to introduce public
buses to Arab communities and has succeeded so far in
Rahat, Kafr Qasim and other communities.55
Improving policing
In response to the Or Commission report, in 2004 the Israelipolice formally recognised the Abraham Fund as its official
provider of educational activities on issues of democracy,
civil rights and egalitarian service in a multicultural society
and instituted the organisations Community Police
Initiative. This led to the creation of community police
units, comprising of both Jewish and Arab personnel in over
100 Arab towns, in contrast to only three towns a decade
earlier. Each of these units is comprised of both Jewish and
Arab personnel, increasing the Arab representation in the
Israeli police from one to 4.5 per cent.
Arabs and Jews buying school materials in central Jerusalem, 2013.Miriam Alster/FLASH90
Manuel Trachtenberg with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 2011.Marc Israel Sellem/POOL/FLASH90
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59 Briefing Paper: Higher Education for Arab Citizens of Israel: Realities , Challenges andNew Opportunities. Inter Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, 31 March 2013.http://www.iataskforce.org/events/briefing-paper-higher-education-arab-citizens-israel-realities-challenges-and-new-opportunities
60 Professor Manuel Trajtenberg on Enhancing Access to Higher Education for Arab Citizensof Israel. Inter-agency Task Force, 5 February 2013. http://www.iataskforce.org/events/professor-manuel-trajtenberg-access-higher-education-arab-citizens-israel
61 The Galilee, Israel. Higher E ducation in Regional and City Development, 2011.http://www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/49001753.pdf
62 Simon Rocker, Arab students aided by Pears Foundation 100,000 grant. The JewishChronicle, 24 May 2013. http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/107861/arab-students-aided-pears-foundation-%C2%A3100000-grant
63 Gil Shefler, Israeli economist peddling new plan to equalize Ar ab university presence.The Jewish Telegraph Agency, 4 March 2013.http://www.jta.org/2013/03/04/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israeli-economist-peddling-new-plan-to-equalize-arab-university-presence#ixzz2rJq8vWYu
64 Arab populations in mixed cities. UKTF Briefing, 2 Januar y 2012.65 Yarden Skop, Israels highest academic society: 108 prof essors, but not a single Ar ab.
Haaretz, 12 September 2013. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.546618
66 Amnon Rubinstein, Israel in Arabs and Jews: Dispelling the Myths, Narrowing theGaps. http://duncankennedy.net/documents/Is-Pal/First-Syllabus/Amnon-Rubinstein_Israeli-Arabs-Jews-Dispelling-Myths.pdf
in May 2013.62 The chair of the Israeli Council of Higher
Education, Manuel Trajtenberg, said Acquiring an education
is crucial to enabling social mobility. This is an important
mission for Israel in general, and this is the best way to
generate that change.63
For the past several years, we have been intensively
analysing government policies toward Arab citizens and
their struggle for equality. On the basis of empirical
research and our in-depth acquaintance with the
bureaucracy and government policies, we write taking
full responsibility for this statement that this is not just
a matter of forward movement in individual cases or
only declarative statements. Rather, it indicates intent to
advance policies that aim to close the gaps in the
allocation of resources between Arabs citizens and Jews,
and this intention has been agreed upon and implemented
by significant components of the governments
bureaucracy at the most senior levels.
Ron Gerlitz is the co-executive director of Sikkuy, an
Arab-Jewish organisation working to advance equality.
Batya Kallusis the senior grants officer for the MoriahFund in Israel, and a philanthropic advisor for foundations
funding activities that promote equality and shared
society in Israel, 2012.
Of course, Israel has a very long way to go before it can say
its minorities are completely free of institutionalised
discrimination as a national minority. Arab areas often face
significant challenges in relation to infrastructure, housing,
education, employment, access to municipal services and
crime.64 Arabs are hugely underrepresented as heads of
hospital departments, university professors and senior
police. Only two per cent of the 174 senior staff members of
state-funded institutions are Arab.65
But of what European society is it not true to say that
minorities suffer from disadvantage and discrimination?
What matters is that Israel is addressing the problem and
making positive steps forward.66
Greater access to higher education
In 2010, the Israeli Council of Higher Education signed a
multi-year agreement with the Ministry of Finance,
allocating NIS 305 million (52.6 million) towards the
development and implementation of a strategic, long-term
approach to enhancing accessibility of higher education for
the Arab community. This approach was formalised into a
Six-Year Plan to Enhance Accessibility of Higher Education
for the Minority Population in Israel.59After being piloted
the plan was rolled out nationally in 2013.60 The plan
provides an overarching strategy to remove barriers andaddress weaknesses along the path to higher education for
Arab citizens from high school through advanced degrees
and into employment. The Israeli government has
announced a matched funding scheme for charitable
donations from the pr ivate sector.61
The Israeli government also launched its first-ever
Scholarship Fund for first degree Arab students to run
alongside the plan and address the economic needs of
students. It includes a 1:1 matching scheme between the
Council for Higher Educations Planning and Budgeting
Committee (PBC) and other governmental bodies on the one
hand, foundations and philanthropists on the other. The
UK-based Pears Foundation became the first partner with
the Israeli government, pledging 100,000 over three years
Arab school children, Um-al-Fahm, 2011.EU NeighbourhoodInformation Centre/Flickr
20The Apartheid Smear
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67 Amira Hass, What does Apartheid mean anyway ? Haaretz, 9 December 2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.562477 68 Ibid.69 ECRI Report on the United Kingdom, 2 March 2010. http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/Country-by-country/United_Kingdom/GBR-CbC-IV-2010-004-ENG.pdf70 Dr. Mohammed Wattad, Israeli Arab Le gal Scholar: Israel Is Not An Apartheid St ate An Interview with Dr. Mohammed Wattad, Member of the SPME Le gal Task Force. 2010.
http://spme.org/spme-in-the-news/israeli-arab-legal-scholar-israel-is-not-an-apartheid-state/8366/71 Adam Hug, Full and Equal Citizens? How to Deliver Equality for Israels Arab Co mmunity? Foreign Policy Centre, 15 December 2010: p. 42.
WHAT ABOUT THE ANTI-ARAB RACISM IN ISRAELI
SOCIETY?
Every country in the EU, including Britain, struggles to
tackle racism, including institutionalised racism, against
its minorities; a fact graphically described by the reports
submitted with the European Commission against Racism
and Intolerance (ECRI).69But no one argues that this make
those countries apartheid states. So why claim it makes
Israel an apartheid state? Why the double standards?
Is there discrimination in Israel? Yes there is
discrimination against women, elderly, Arabs, Russian
Jews, Christians But the same goes for Canada. Is it
good No? But it means we have to deal with the problem
from within The existence of discrimination in a state
does not mean it is an apartheid state There is a big
difference between apartheid and discrimination.70
Dr. Mohammed Wattad, Israeli Arab Legal Scholar.
Yes, there have indeed been examples of discriminatory
legislation being proposed by certain MKs. However, AdamHug of the UK Foreign Policy Centre points out that when
analysing the worrying legislative environment facing
Israeli Arab community, it is worth exercising a note of
caution. Few bills, he points out, even in watered down
form, become law. The majority of these pieces of legislation
are private members bills without Government backing. In
the UK House of Commons, MPs enter a ballot system out of
which seven out of 650 get a brief amount of parliamentary
time. While this may be too few to give backbench members
any real power and should be reformed, it provides a useful
counterpoint to the legislative hyperactivity that afflicts the
Knesset, with each member able to submit multiple bills per
session. Perhaps, as with Israels proportional representation
system, some problems the country faces stem not from its
democratic deficiencies but from its excesses.71
The journalist Amira Hass argues that Israel is an apartheid
state not because there is apartheid in Israel indeed she
admits there is not: if one visits our hospitals one can find
Arabs and Jews among doctors and patients but because
Israel shares apartheid South Africas racist philosophy of
separate development.67The data surveyed in this section
has shown that this claim is not true. Israels response to a
poor and marginalised Arab sector is not to repress it so it is
not able to threaten the regime, but to bring it out of poverty
so it can play a full and equal part of society as a minority
sector in a democratic state.
Yes, it could do better. No, it is not a case of apartheid.
In fact, the Apartheid Smear damages all these efforts to
close the gaps between minority and majority in Israel.
Why? Because it demoralises Arab youth and is an obstacle
to them aiming higher. This is one of the most pernicious
consequences of the smear. As Gerlitz and Kallus point out
Arab youth, who absorb the message that the totality of the
government of Israel in relation to Arab society is aimed at
harming Arab citizens, will not make an effort to apply for
positions in government service or in high tech companies.
It is a dangerous claim which weakens Arab society and
harms the struggle for equality.68
Jewish-Arab Hadash party demonstration. Jews and Arabs refuse tobe enemies.Yossi Gurvitz/Flickr
The Apartheid Smear 21
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72 Nohad Ali and Shai Inbar, Whos in Favor of Equality? Equality betwe en Arabs and Jewsin Israel Summary of an Opinion Survey. Sikkuy, 2011. http://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdf
73 Greene, Johnson and Leshem, op cit.74 Joel Brinkley, Bans Kahane Party From Election. The New York Times, 6 October
1988. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/06/world/israel-bans-kahane-party-from-election.html?pagewanted=1
75 Supreme Court Unanimously Overturns Ban of Balad/Tajammoas Hatikva ElectionAd. Adalah, 16 January 2013. http://adalah.org/eng/Articles/1904/Supreme-Court-Unanimously-Overturns-Ban-of-Ad
76 Price Tag Attack in Baqa Al-Gharbiyye. UK Task Force, 9 December 2013.http://www.uktaskforce.org/latest-news/price-tag-attack----in-baqa-al-gharbiyye.php
77 Jack Khoury and Yair Ettinger, 39 municipal rabbis issue ruling against renting homesto non-Jews; PM, ministers up in arms. Haaretz, 8 December 2010.http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/39-municipal-rabbis-issue-ruling-against-renting-homes-to-non-jews-pm-ministers-up-in-arms-1.329411
78 The UN International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of RacialDiscrimination. Israel Ministry of Justice: YouTube, 2005.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjbKHjEBG6A
on love for the stranger and one law for all. How would we
respond if it were said not to sell an apartment to Jews? We
would be infuriated he said, adding, These things should
not be said in a Jewish and democratic state that respects
the morality and the tradition of Israel and the Bible. The
State of Israel, therefore, categorically rejects these
statements [by the Rabbis].77
Israels anti-discrimination law, officially titled The
Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and
Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law
(passed in 2000), was assessed by the UN International
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial
Discrimination in 2005. The report stated that particularly
in the media human rights awareness is high and that,
The language of rights has permeated the daily life of
Israel.78
Yes, small numbers of extremists have made headlines by
burning and desecrating mosques and other places of
worship, and engaging in street violence towards Arabs. But
at the base of Israeli society, the picture is very different. An
opinion survey conducted by Nohad Ali and Shai Inbar for
Sikkuy found that 74 per cent of Israeli Jews acknowledge
that Arab Citizens suffer discr imination; 60 per cent of Jews
believe that promoting equality is in the interest of the
country, and 53 per cent of Jews are disturbed by levels of
inequality.72 The mass Israeli social protest movement of
2011 co-ordinated with Arab community leaders to raise thedemand for state recognition of unrecognised villages
throughout the country, especially the Bedouin communities
in the Negev.73
Racism is not widespread in Israeli society and nor is it
institutionalised. Israel has been a signatory of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination treaty since 1966. In 1988, the Central
Election Commission banned the anti-Arab Kach party.74
In 2013, an Arab party produced an election advert that
mocked the Israeli national anthem the Hatikvah and
the Central Election Commission banned it. The Supreme
Court reversed this decision, and upheld the right to attack
the Hatikvah.75
More needs to be done. The Israeli police force and attorney
general have come under criticism in the past few years for
not successfully prosecuting perpetrators of price tag
attacks within Israel.76Many Israelis protested when there
were no prosecutions following the investigation into some
Rabbis who encouraged Jews not to rent property to non-
Jews. The Israeli Prime Minister how different this is from
apartheid-era politicians in South Africa! quoted the Bible
The people of Marak Levinski arrive with plates filled with food forAfrican asylum seekers.Tomer Neuberg/Flash90
The majority of Jews believe equality is in the interest of the countr y.
22The Apartheid Smear
http://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdfhttp://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdfhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjbKHjEBG6Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjbKHjEBG6Ahttp://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdfhttp://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/hasamim/shivion2011_english_abstract.pdf -
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79 More Tolerance Less Racism, Israel Ministry of Justice. http://index.justice.gov.il/AntiRacism/Pages/InformationInEnglish/AboutTheCampaign.aspx80 PM Netanyahu condemns racism against Arab citizens of Israel. UK Task Force, 3 June 2013.
http://www.uktaskforce.org/latest-news/pm-netanyahu-condemns-racism-against-arab-citizens-of-israel.php81 UK Task Force, PM Netanyahu condemns racism against Arab citizens of Israel. 3 June 2013.
http://www.uktaskforce.org/latest-news/pm-netanyahu-condemns-racism-against-arab-citizens-of-israel.php#sthash.aRMZJYJY.EYGgPKOv.dpuf 82 Dr. Mohammed Wattad, Israeli Arab Le gal Scholar: Israel Is Not An Apartheid State An Interview with Dr. Mohammed Wattad, Member of the SPME Le gal Task Force. 3 July 2010.
http://spme.org/spme-in-the-news/israeli-arab-legal-scholar-israel-is-not-an-apartheid-state/8366/
On 2 June 2012, in response to so-called price-tag attacks,
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, said I strongly
condemn recent phenomena of racism against the Arab
citizens of Israel and hooliganism against Palestinians,
which were without any provocation or justification
whatsoever. We strongly reject these phenomena and will
act with all legal means at our disposal to stop them.80And
when Khaled Shakra, a teacher at the Ajial school in Jaffa,
was unable to book an end of year visit to the Superland
amusement park on certain